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Place-Based Versus People-Based Geographic Information Science Harvey Miller* Department of Geography, University of Utah

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Place-Based Versus People-Based Geographic Information Science Harvey Miller* Department of Geography, University of Utah Geography Compass 1/3 (2007): 503–535, 10.1111/j.1749-8198.2007.00025.x Place-Based versus People-Based Geographic Information Science Harvey Miller* Department of Geography, University of Utah Abstract Geographic information science and technologies are revolutionizing basic and applied science by allowing integrated holistic approaches to the analysis of geographic locations and their attributes. However, the increasing mobility and connectivity of many people in the world means that the relationships between people and place are becoming more subtle and complex, rendering a place-based perspective incomplete. This article discusses the need to move beyond a place- based perspective in geographic information science to include a people-based perspective (i.e., the individual in space and time). It reviews the theories and technologies that can support the people-based perspective and provides some example applications of the people-based perspective. Introduction The concept of place rightly occupies the core of geographic thought. Geographic location provides a fundamental strategy for organizing and synthesizing observations about the real world (Berry 1964). Location provides a holistic, integrative way of understanding phenomena often considered in isolation by other disciplines and perspectives (National Research Council 1997). Geographic information science and geographic information systems (GIS) enhance this central focus of geographic inquiry by facilitating the collection, storage, analysis and communication of loca- tional data and information, encouraging holistic and integrative thinking about places. Places are not simply a semantic convenience. It is a meaningful lens for viewing the world because it is orderly with respect to geographic space. Physical and human phenomena tend to organize by geographic location for a simple reason: overcoming space requires expenditure of resources, energy, and time, a charge that nature (including humans) attempt to minimize subject to constraints and other objectives. The often-quoted To b ler’s First Law of Geography summarizes this empirical regularity: things are more related with proximity in geographic space (Miller 2004; To b ler 1970). Human activities also tend to organize with respect to geographic location due to the friction of distance and the consequent © 2007 The Author Journal Compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd 504 Place-based versus people-based geographic information science competition for advantageous location, co-location with others perform- ing similar or complementary activities, and the selective interchange of people, material and information among locations. As Couclelis (1996) points out, all of the classic human geographic theories and models characterize the spatial organization of human activities as a function of distance; this includes movement and communication (spatial interaction theory), the number, location, and size of cities (central place theory), agriculture (von Thünen), industrial production (Weber), household location (Alonso), economic development (core-periphery models), and urban land use (Lowry models). Influencing the relationships between people, place, and activity are the technologies to mitigate the friction of distance. Transportation technologies reduce the friction of distance for physical movement and communication technologies reduce this friction for information exchange. Abler (1975) refers to these as space-adjusting technologies because they literally change the nature of experienced space with respect to the time, cost, and effort required to move people, material, or information among locations, resulting in a consequent impact on the distribution of human activities. Transportation and communication technologies have been available for centuries; conveyances and media such as the chariot, clipper ship, mail, railroads, telegraph and telephone had well-documented transformative effects on societies and economies (see, for example, Standage 1998; Winston 1998; Wright 2000). The differential impact of space-adjusting technologies can be accommodated from a purely place-based perspective. For example, consider the three classical theories of urban form: these reflect different eras of transportation technologies, including walking (concentric zone theory), railway (sector theory), and automobile (multiple nuclei theory) (see Hartshorn 1992). Similarly, transportation can also be encompassed in quantitative place-based models; examples include Mayhew and Hyman (2000) and O’Kelly (1989). However, in the late 20th and the early 21st centuries, the widespread deployment and democ- ratization of technologies such as the automobile, commercial aviation, the Internet, and the mobile phone has resulted in an unprecedented explosion in the mobility and connectivity for many people in the world. It is possible that we have passed a threshold beyond which a place-based perspective alone is no longer viable. This article argues that the place-based orientation of geographic information science, and geographic science more generally, should be extended to encompass a people-based perspective. Instead of using places as a surrogate for people and their activities, a people-based focuses directly on individuals’ activities in space and time, and their use of places in both the real and virtual world. This argument is not new: it has been made by others, mostly notably Hägerstrand (1970), but also Falk and Abler (1980) and Pred (1984). However, a reinvigorated argument and literature review is appropriate at this time given the recent developments in © 2007 The Author Geography Compass 1/3 (2007): 503–535, 10.1111/j.1749-8198.2007.00025.x Journal Compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd Place-based versus people-based geographic information science 505 transportation and communications technologies discussed above, as well as contemporary developments in the theories and geo-spatial technologies that can support a mature people-based science. The dream of pioneers such as Hägerstrand, Abler, and Pred can now become reality, and is even more imper- ative given the highly mobile and connected world in which we now live. The next section of this article discusses the changing nature of place: it reviews the effects of space-adjusting technologies in creating space-time convergence, high mobility, and telepresence, the increasing likelihood that these trends will lead to scientists to a fallacy when inferring the characteristics and experiences of people from places. The following section reviews recent developments in people-based theories and technologies; these include time geography in its classical form, as well as the new and more robust theory that has emerged over the past decade or so. It also discusses the rise of location-aware technologies, geo-simulation, mobile objects databases, and spatio-temporal knowledge discovery techniques that can support a people-based perspective. The next section discusses the sensitive issue of locational privacy and the need to balance these rights and concerns with the benefits that can accrue from a people-based perspective. This article concludes with some examples of people-based science in a variety of application domains. The Changing Nature of Place space-time convergence Space-time convergence describes the dramatic impact of space-adjusting technologies on the organization of human activities in geographic space (Janelle 1969). Transportation technologies literally bring places closer together with respect to the travel time required. For example, the time distance between Portland, Maine and San Diego, California, has shrunk from 2 years on foot in the 16th century CE (Common Era), 8 months on horseback in the 17th century, 4 months by stagecoach in the 19th century, 4 days by rail in the early 20th century, to 5 hours by airplane in the late 20th/early 21st centuries (Figure 1). If we use a walking speed of 4.8 km per hour as a metric, San Diego has ‘moved’ to a location only 24 km from Portland relative to the 16th century, meaning that the time- distance between the cities has shrunk by over 4023 km in 400 years (Lowe and Moryadas 1975). Similarly, the time-distance between London and Edinburgh shrunk at an average rate of 29.3 min per year over the period from 1650 to 1950 CE (Janelle 1969) while the time-distance from Boston to New York City converged at an average rate of 20.7 min per year between 1800 and 2000 CE (Janelle 2004). Space-time convergence operates at local scales: cities have shrunk with respect to time-distance as urban transportation technologies have progressed from walking, to horse- cars, electric streetcars and the automobile (Hartshorn 1992, Chapter 9). © 2007 The Author Geography Compass 1/3 (2007): 503–535, 10.1111/j.1749-8198.2007.00025.x Journal Compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd 506 Place-based versus people-based geographic information science Fig. 1. Hours required to traverse North America (after Lowe and Moryadas 1975). Transportation-induced space-time convergence has dramatically increased the mobility and spatial range of individuals, particularly in the latter half of the 20th and early 21st centuries as these technologies have become more accessible, flexible, and convivial. For example, at the end of the 17th century people in the Netherlands traveled on average only 40 km per year; today this is the average daily travel distance for citizens of that country (Bertolini and Dijst 2003). The trend toward greater mobility
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